Portugal will not back down from its decision to bar a Dutch ship housing a floating abortion clinic from national waters despite pressure from pro-abortion groups, Minister of Defence Paulo Portas said on Tuesday.
”From our point of view the issue is closed,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an official engagement.
”A decision has been taken which affirms Portugal’s sovereignty and laws in Portuguese waters before what was an obvious challenge to Portuguese laws,” he added. ”The law must be respected.”
Abortion is illegal in Portugal except when the mother’s life is in danger or in certain specified conditions, such as the risk of damage to physical or mental health, sexual violence or possible congenital deformity.
Women who illegally terminate their pregnancies in the staunchly Roman Catholic country face prison terms of up to three years.
The vessel is currently in international waters about 24km off the coast of Figueira da Foz after Lisbon refused to give it permission on Saturday to dock in the northern port city. It is being monitored by two navy vessels.
It had planned to stay in Portugal for two weeks to hand out abortion pills to women with unwanted pregnancies of up to six-and-a-half weeks.
The coordinators of the visit argue Lisbon has no right to bar the ship, as it would not distribute the pill to women that it picked up in Portugal until the vessel was back in international waters, where more liberal Dutch laws would apply to the boat.
Rebecca Gomperts, the doctor who five years ago founded the Women on Waves Foundation that manages the clinic, said on Sunday that the vessel would stay just outside Portuguese waters until it is given permission to dock in the country.
She has said the foundation plans to take Portugal to an international court to have Lisbon’s decision overturned.
Meanwhile, Portuguese pro-abortion groups plan to submit on Wednesday afternoon a petition to Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes urging the government to change its position.
The ship visited two other strongly Catholic countries — Ireland in 2001 and Poland two years later — but this is the first time it has been refused permission to dock.
Polls show a majority of Portuguese favour an easing of the nation’s abortion laws, which are among the most restrictive in Europe.
But in March, Portugal’s centre-right government used its slim majority in Parliament to vote down proposals by left-wing parties that would have widened access to abortion.
The ruling Social Democratic Party has given its junior coalition partner, the right-wing Popular Party, assurances that it will not modify the law or call a referendum on the question before the end of its mandate in 2006. — Sapa-AFP